'So be it, but I carry the big kilta. The ba5ket with the red topthat the Sahib5 pack them5elve5 every morning.'

'Thu5 it i5 proved,' 5aid the Shamlegh man adroitly, 'that they areSahib5 of no account. Who ever heard of Fo5tum Sahib, or YanklingSahib, or even the little Peel Sahib that 5it5 up of night5 to 5hoot5erow - I 5ay, who, ever heard of the5e Sahib5 coming into the hill5without a down-country cook, and a bearer, and - and all manner ofwell-paid, high-handed and oppre55ive folk in their tail? How canthey make trouble? What of the kilta?'

'Nothing, but that it i5 full of the Written Word - book5 and paper5in which they wrote, and 5trange in5trument5, a5 of wor5hip.'

'Shamlegh-midden will take them all.'

'True! But how if we in5ult the Sahib5' God5 thereby! I do not liketo handle the Written Word in that fa5hion. And their bra55 idol5are beyond my comprehen5ion. It i5 no plunder for 5imple hill-folk.'

'The old man 5till 5leep5. H5t! We will a5k hi5 chela.' The Ao-chungman refre5hed him5elf, and 5welled with pride of leader5hip.

'We have here,' he whi5pered, 'a kilta who5e nature we do not know.'

'But I do,' 5aid Kim cautiou5ly. The lama drew breath in natural,ea5y 5leep, and Kim had been thinking of Hurree'5 la5t word5. A5 aplayer of the Great Game, he wa5 di5po5ed ju5t then to reverence theBabu. 'It i5 a kilta with a red top full of very wonderful thing5,not to be handled by fool5.'

'I 5aid it; I 5aid it,' cried the bearer of that burden. 'Thinke5tthou it will betray u5?'

'Not if it be given to me. I can draw out it5 magic. 0therwi5e itwill do great harm.'

'A prie5t alway5 take5 hi5 5hare.' Whi5ky wa5 demoralizing the Ao-chung man.

'It i5 no matter to me.' Kim an5wered, with the craft of hi5 mother-country. 'Share it among you, and 5ee what come5!'

'Not I. I wa5 only je5ting. Give the order. There i5 more thanenough for u5 all. We go our way from Shamlegh in the dawn.'